Archive for March, 2006
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
The Instructor Challenge is breathing down our necks. This Saturday, April 1st, Craig and I, along with about 10 other instructors will get together for the grueling hour of fat burning, muscle building, bonding experience of the challenge. No foolin'. We have put it off long enough - it's time to get serious. According to the Body Pump maunual - "Instructors are recommended to use this form of training a maximum of twice a week, in association with other forms of cross-training to achieve and maintain superior BodyPump fitness".
How many of us do this? I can usually get my extra workout in on Mondays and Fridays - the same days Craig and I teach - but it is not quite as intense as the IC. Which brings to mind an interesting observation from the 1/4ly in Baltimore. Almost everyone there was an instructor - however - what I noticed was that a good percentage of them were somewhat out of shape. (I'm trying to be very polite!) I was discussing this with a couple of BP participants from our classes and what one said was very eye opening. She said she would not go to a hair dresser who had bad hair. Good point. I know that some of us came from chubby backrounds and have come along way - but we need to be great role models or we may start losing our class members! If we don't 'practice what we preach' - maybe we should be doing something else. I see some instructors using minimal weight on their bars - like a beginner. Maybe it's time to start keeping the IC an integral part of our ongoing training so we can 'have great hair'!
Keep pumping!
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Here is Ian's "finished"
taxonomy of legal blogs, and what an amazing piece of work it is.
Somewhat similarly, I like
blawg.org.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Verdict: The New York Times Blew the Story. I thoroughly enjoy reading reasoned arguments such as those Mr. Hinderaker and his colleagues deliver each and every day. This post discusses the striking difference between the Washington Times and New York Times stories describing the FISA court judges’ testimony before the Senate. John rightly concluded that at least one of the two papers had to be running the facts through a high-gain distortion device. Turns out it was the New York Times.
Having reviewed the transcript, I conclude that the Washington Times’ characterization was fair, but arguably overstated; several of the judges said that they could not opine on the NSA program, since they didn’t know its details. The New York Times, however, badly misled its readers.
Read entire.
Posted in Just Good Investigative Journalism, WWIV | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Today my computer gets reformatted. Hopefully I will be back up and running tonight. All in all it will be like having a brand new computer. The problem is getting everything back to my preferences. So just be patient and wait another day or two until things get back to normal.
In the meantime, send me your comments, questions, ideas, or gripes. I haven't checked my email in three days now, so I
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
If you apply any intelligence to the immigration issue, it's hard not to like David Brooks' NY Times article, Immigrants to Be Proud Of. Politicians of all stripes should not ignore the logic that Mr. Brooks puts forward. My favorite...
Posted in Current Affairs | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
As further proof that any dope can write a book and end up on the NY Times Bestseller list, without possessing an ounce of talent, I just finished reading, and I am embarrassed to admit it, "Confessions of a Video Vixen". I think the title "Confessions of a Useless Piece of Trash", or in the lingo of the rap universe, "Confessions of a Ho", would have been more accurate. The front and back cover
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
I've been thinking about this as a topic for an open thread for a while:
If you could spend one day with anyone in the world, who would you choose? Stick to persons that are living and not members of your family, and let me know who you would pick.
A special prize of select Commonwealth [...]
Posted in Misc | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Marc Fisher of the WaPo, who has scored tickets to Indianapolis, is trying to be a one man ground zero for the George Mason Patriots' appearance in the Final Four. He's got a column, a blog post, and his chat.
I've loved GMU's run. I'll be rooting for them Saturday night, but I think [...]
Posted in Campus life, College hoops | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Via Kilo, I see that Jerry is taking our esteemed Congressman, Rick Boucher, to task for more silly comments he's made. With visual aids!
Keep on keepin' him honest, Jerry.
Posted in Virginia politics | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"?Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff. Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes... Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave. Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria. *Why do I resurrect these memorable lines from a classic movie? Because they reflect the mass hysteria that I'm witnessing these days with regard to the House Republicans refusing to raise taxes again because the state of Virginia is currently awash in a cash surplus - of Biblical proportions.Check out this Roanoke Times editorial if you think I'm exaggerating:Games of chicken rarely end well
House Republican leaders race toward a transportation catastrophe to prove their ideological rigor.
Like characters in a '50s bad-teen movie, Virginia lawmakers this week hopped in their cars, hit the gas and started racing toward the cliff's edge. Their budget impasse has become a game of chicken with a July 1 deadline.
Sen. John Warner and U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, both Republicans, warned that Virginia would lose millions of dollars in federal transportation assistance if state lawmakers did not put up matching funds.
Business leaders warned that companies would not choose the Old Dominion if transportation remains a chronic problem.
Only legislators with political courage and a spirit of compromise can prevent Virginia from splattering on the rocks. (link)
The ship of state is splattering on the rocks. For the love of God.So what prompts this dire warning of impending doom?House Republicans want to pay for transportation using one-time revenue and dollars raided from education and other programs.
The heartless bastards. Don't they understand that their idea of using the exploding budget surplus to pay for extending those HOV lanes up in the DC suburbs will destroy every living organism on this planet? Don't they understand what unspeakable evil they have brought upon us?Ahem.Let's get real for just a moment. Is there a soul alive (who isn't confined to a cubicle in the bowels of the Roanoke Times) who believes that we'll not be spending gobs of money on our roads in the future? And that the burgeoning state treasury can't accommodate any and all transportation needs - if our legislators will quit spending money like drunken sailors on leave in Manila?Does anyone buy this silliness?What has gotten into these people? Have they been drinking the water out of Callahan Creek?My guess is no. There is only one possible explanation for their irrational behavior:Dr. Peter Venkman: Ray has gone bye-bye, Egon... what've you got left? Dr. Egon Spengler: Sorry, Venkman, I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. * From the movie, "Ghost Busters"
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
I'm occasionally accused of not listening when ... someone ... gives me my daily instructions. And it frustrates the beejeebers out of her ... er them.
Well, there's an explanation:
When men and women speak, the human brain processes the sounds of those voices differently, Britain's Mirror and Agence France Presse report of a new study from the U.K.'s University of Sheffield. While most of us actually hear female voices more clearly, men's brains hear women's voices first as music. But it's not music. It's someone giving them a honey-do list. So the brain goes into overdrive trying to analyze what is being said.
Bottom line: Men have to work harder deciphering what women are saying because they use the auditory part of the brain that processes music, not human voices. Men's brains are not designed to listen to women's voices. (
link
)
See, honey? I'm working harder to grasp your every command. A professor says so.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
The latest news on Randal McCloy can only be described as astounding:
Sago survivor recalls 'fragments' from ordeal
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN — Randal McCloy Jr.’s memories of the 41 hours he lay trapped inside the Sago Mine are “not really much,†just fragmented images he’d mainly rather forget.
And when he thinks of the 12 friends and co-workers who slowly succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning after the Jan. 2 explosion, he pictures them elsewhere.
“I try to leave out all the gory details and stuff like that because I don’t like to look at them in that light and that way,†he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I just like to picture them saved and in heaven, stuff like that."
Doctors say McCloy, 26, of Simpson, was perhaps minutes from death when he was pulled from the coal mine Jan. 4 with kidney, lung, liver and heart damage. He was in a coma for weeks, suffering from severe brain injuries.
But today, after just three months of intensive rehabilitation and medical care, he is expected to return home. (
link
)
Read the whole thing. A full recovery may very well be in store. By the grace of God.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
I'm hosting the Virginia Blog Carnival that will publish on Monday, April 3d.
I don't know what I'm doing, except that if you email me a link to your post or to the post of a Virginia blogger you think is worthy, I think I'll be able to figure it out. Any other information you [...]
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
I come to you from College Park, Maryland this morning. I'm on the University of Maryland campus. A more beautiful conglomeration of buildings you'll never see - except perhaps at UVA - or Washington & Lee - or Emory & Henry. But with those possible exceptions, UM is a fine looking facility - in a lousy urban setting.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
If you enjoyed yesterday's story in the Wall Street Journal about American heroism in Iraq, you'll like
this one
as well.
Americans warriors answering the call.
You can check out the story's authenticity
here
.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
The United Nations issued a demand that Iran desist in its efforts to destroy the planet. Again.
Security Council Pressures Tehran
Iran Is Urged to Halt Uranium Enrichment
By Colum Lynch, Washington Post Staff Writer
UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- The Security Council called on Iran Wednesday to suspend its uranium enrichment program within 30 days ...
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a nonbinding statement ... (
link
)
A nonbinding statement. That'll scare 'em.
The world is doomed.
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Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Randal McCloy, Jr., the sole survivor of the Sago mine disaster, is on his way home and is speaking to the press.
Last night, when the NBC Nightly News was about to show a short clip of an interview with Mr. McCloy broadcast today, I braced myself. What I saw, though, seemed nothing short [...]
Posted in Faith, Life | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Really, can anyone say that they are surprised at this:
Lucia Newman, CNN's first and only correspondent based in Havana, has jumped to the new Al-Jazeera International network, which plans to begin operations later this spring.
Newman will be based in Al-Jazeera's bureau in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Journalist Mariana Sanchez, a former news anchor for Panamericana Television, [...]
Posted in Death of the MSM | Comments Off
Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Part four of SST's series on the state of the Virginia Republican Party.
Posted in Virginia politics | Comments Off
